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Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Kaiser Wilhelm II at Gibraltar 1904

Wilhelm - looking ludicrous

As eldest grandson of Queen Victoria – at whose death he was
present – and as nephew of Britain’s King Edward VIII, Kaiser Wilhelm II of
Germany displayed had a half-respectful, half-resentful, attitude to Britain.
He gloried in being an honorary admiral of the Royal Navy (and in wearing the
appropriate uniform), he raced his yacht Meteor
regularly in the Cowes Regatta and enjoyed private visits during which he
dressed as an English country-gentleman. His suspicion and dislike of Britain,
which later amounted to a near-mania, only intensified after the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale in April 1904, prior to
which there had been some possibility of an Anglo-German Alliance.

Beresford as politician

The Entente was
still a month in the future, when Wilhelm visited Gibraltar in March 1904. It
was to be seen in retrospect as the climax of the Kaiser’s somewhat one-sided
love-affair with Britain. I was reminded of this recently when I read an
account of it by Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, then in command of the Royal
Navy’s Channel fleet. The name of this fleet was somewhat of a misnomer as its
area of operations was essentially the North Atlantic. Beresford had
transferred his flag from HMS Majestic
to her sister pre-dreadnought HMS Caesar,
on February 2nd 1904 and the Kaiser was to arrive in Gibraltar the following
month.

Beresford, whose very public feud with Admiral John Fisher
was to cause controversy in subsequent years, was the ideal man to manage an
occasion of this sort. He had at one stage been a crony of the then Prince of
Wales – later Edward VII – before a falling out with him over a shared mistress
and he had conducted an active political career as a member of parliament in
parallel with his career as a naval officer.

SS Koenig Albert - destined to end her days as Italian war-booty

SMS Friedrich Karl

The Kaiser arrived in Gibraltar in March 1904 on board the 10483-ton German liner, Koenig Albert, escorted
by the armoured cruiser SMS Friedrich
Karl. As a mark of respect for his
honorary rank of a British Admiral his flag was hoisted on HMS Caesar.

HMS Caesar - destined to fly the Kaisers flag as an honorary Royal Navy Admiral

The account of what happened
thereafter is best told in Beresford’s own words:

“On the 20th, his
Majesty honouring me with his presence at dinner in the Caesar, the boats of the Fleet were lined on
either side of-the passage between the Koenig Albert and the Caesar; and when the
Emperor proceeded between the lines, every boat burned a blue light, all oars
were tossed, blades fore and aft, in perfect silence, the midshipmen conveying
their orders by signs.”

An earlier "arch of fire" -during Edward VII's visit in 1903

After dinner Beresford proposed the Kaiser’s health and when
“I stood up, glass in hand, as I said the
words “Emperor of Germany," a
rocket went up from the deck above, and at the signal every ship in the Fleet
fired a Royal Salute. As the Emperor was leaving that night, the German flag
and the Union Jack were hoisted on the Rock, half the searchlights of the Fleet
being turned on the one flag, and half on the other. Precisely as the Koenig
Albert passed between the ends of the
breakwaters, two stands of a thousand rockets, each stand placed upon the end
of a breakwater, were ignited, and rushing upwards, met in a triumphal arch of
fire high over the mastheads of the Emperor's ship.”

Wilhelm did not realise it, but this marked the end of the
affair. The following month Britain linked its destiny – fatefully – with
France in the Entente Cordiale and
the slide commenced towards war a decade later. He was to visit Gibraltar one time,
only a year later, but on this occasion there was to be no rockets, no
searchlights, no triumphal arch of fire.

It followed from Wilhelm’s visit to Tangier, Morocco, in
March 1905 when declared he had come to support the sovereignty of the Sultan
—a statement which amounted to a provocative challenge to French influence in
Morocco. The result was a serious international crisis that nearly led to war
between Germany on the one side, Britain and France on the other. It was finally
resolved peacefully, but it set the scene for further confrontations.

En route home from
Morocco Wilhelm stopped at Gibraltar. He met a very frosty reception which he
summed up in his memoirs: “The first I
learned about the consequences of my Tangier visit was when I got to Gibraltar
and was formally and frigidly received by the English, in marked contrast to my
cordial reception the year before.”

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About Me

My "Dawlish Chronicles" are set in the late 19th Century and reflect my deep interest in the politics, attitudes and technology of the period. The fifth novel in the series, “Britannia’s Amazon” is now available in both paperback and Kindle formats. It follows the four earlier Dawlish Chronicles, "Britannia's Wolf", "Britannia's Reach”, "Britannia's Shark" and "Britannia's Spartan". Click on the book covers below to learn more or to purchase.
I’ve had an adventurous career in the international energy industry and am proud of having worked in every continent except Antarctica. History is a driving passion in my life and I have travelled widely to visit sites of historical significance, many insights gained in this way being reflected in my writing. I welcome contact on Facebook and via this Blog. My website is www.dawlishchronicles.com and its “Conflict” section has a large number of articles on topics from the mid-18th Century to the early 20th Century.